Archbishop Emeritus Charles Chaput of
Philadelphia, USA, weighs in on Francis' Singapore controversy
(FirstThings.com, Sept. 16). Key points.
- Francis has the habit of saying things that leave listeners confused.
- In Singapore, he suggested that all religions are paths to God.
- That all religions have equal weight is an extraordinarily flawed idea for the Successor of Peter to appear to support.
-
Religions are not equal in their content or consequences. They have
very different conceptions of who God is and what that means for the
nature of the human person and society.
- St Paul condemns false
religions and proclaims Jesus Christ as the reality and fulfillment of
the unknown God worshipped by the Greeks (Acts 17:22–31).
- Not all religions seek the same God, and some religions are both wrong and potentially dangerous, materially and spiritually.
- We are called Christians because we believe that Jesus Christ is God.
-
To borrow a thought from C. S. Lewis, if Jesus were just one of many,
he'd also be a liar, because he emphatically claimed that, "I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me" (John 14:6).
- A loving God may accept the worship of any
sincere and charitable heart — but salvation comes only through His only
Son, Jesus Christ.
- To suggest that Catholics follow a path to
God more or less similar to that of other religions is to deprive
martyrdom of its meaning. Why give one's life for Christ when other
paths can lead to the same God?
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